Coddington article is ill-informed and wrong

Southern Response is
concerned at misinformation promoted in an opinion piece by
Deborah Coddington in the Sunday Star Times. The assertions
in the article surrounding Southern Response’s completion
statistics and percentages are simply not correct.

“What is most disappointing about this type of
commentary is that it can only be intended to undermine
confidence in the residential recovery in Canterbury” said
Peter Rose, CEO of Southern Response.

“It would not
have taken a lot of effort for Ms Coddington to speak to
staff or view our website to understand the progress in our
build programme and seeing the number of our customers that
have already fully settled their claims with us,” said
Peter Rose, CEO of Southern Response.

As at 28
February, Southern Response had fully settled 2,840 over cap
claims (of 6,841). Of that number of fully settled claims,
Southern Response has completed 347 repairs and rebuilds.

Nearly 3,000 customers have elected to be part of the
Southern Response build programme. In addition to the 347
builds already completed, 394 Southern Response customers
have completed the detailed planning process and their house
is currently under construction.

Another 1,077 Southern
Response customers are in the immediate precursor to
construction, which is detailed planning and design, this
group of our customers are working with Southern Response
and Arrow claims staff, designers, engineers and builder -
preparing the necessary detailed documentation and paperwork
to submit to local authorities in preparation for giving the
go-ahead to build.

Southern Response learnt early that
detailed planning and design needs to be supported by good
preparatory work, understanding the possible challenges that
the land and dwelling may present in the post-earthquake
environment.

All other Southern Response customers in our
build programme are currently moving through the
‘pre-design’ phase, dealing with technical issues with
the site or dwelling and solving them before moving the
house claim into detailed planning and design.

“You do
have to ask yourself when you read articles like this, what
is the author trying to achieve?” said Rose.

“We have
offered many times for commentators to come meet with us and
would happily have extended that invitation to Ms
Coddington. We’d had no direct contact from Coddington and
the content in the article reflected that,” said
Rose.

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